1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to musical instruments, and more particularly to an improved musical instrument for aiding a person to learn musical compositions by playing the instrument following visual cues provided by the instrument.
2. Description of the Related Art
Dynamic note indicating music devices, like the player piano, are limited in their capabilities of aiding a person to learn how to play a musical instrument because the user does not play the notes himself. At best, the user may attempt to follow the fingerings generated by the device. In addition, these instruments lack the ability to receive musical data from sources external to the instrument.
To help a person learn to play a musical instrument, the instrument ideally would allow the user to generate music with the instrument after receiving real-time, easy to follow cues on the musical instrument. Much of the music desired to be learned would include single notes and chords, to be played together simultaneously and in sequence. Additionally, this music would include pauses, or rests, as well. A useful learning device would visually assist the user by dynamically displaying playing locations on the musical instrument at the desired tempo of one or more notes simultaneously from a musical composition desired to be learned. Such a method would allow the user to more easily learn to play the predetermined sequence.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,915,005 to Shaffer et al. discloses a fingering display for a musical instrument. After the user selects a musical key and scales, notes, or chords, the instrument statically displays those corresponding locations on the musical instrument where the user should engage it to play those desired notes. The notes displayed are limited to those stored in the registers and correspond to a selected key. Thus, the disclosed device does not dynamically display sequences of notes, and cannot receive musical data from an external source.